Monday

Nov 30, 2015 at 1:13 PM

Commissioner Jim Malless really doesn’t like cul-de-sacs. A new cul-de-sac today means a practically-private road taking public dollars to maintain tomorrow, he says, and he wishes the city’s planning department would curb their creation.

LAKELAND — Commissioner Jim Malless really doesn’t like cul-de-sacs. A new cul-de-sac today means a practically-private road taking public dollars to maintain tomorrow, he says, and he wishes the city’s planning department would curb their creation.But putting an end to them fully is a politically difficult proposition and the city’s governing body is a seven-headed hydra whose arms and legs, the bureaucracy, often leave simple consensus-setting meetings wondering which direction the thumbs up were really pointing.Complex issues and new policies are going to take more time than currently available to build clarity and consensus without the pressure of a looming vote, Malless said. “For me personally, we have two jobs,” he said. “We set policy — which is the big job — and we hire the city manager and city attorney.”For more than a year he has told his colleagues they need purpose-made, freewheeling policy discussions sessions — proactivity to go along with the reactivity that drives most of the commission’s biweekly agenda.Starting January, he’ll get his wish. Once a month commissioners will meet to pitch their ideas to their colleagues in an attempt to build a majority coalition behind big ideas.“I think that’s one of our main jobs,” Commissioner Justin Troller said of setting public policy. “I give credit to Commissioner Malless for spearheading the issue.”Through Troller finds himself on the losing side of more votes than his colleagues, “I think many of us share similar ideas about the big picture,” he said.It may also prevent the city manager from having to build a coalition from a muddy majority opinion, like the one that drove hundreds of labor hours and thousands of consulting dollars toward a fire fee that lost its support in the last minute earlier this year, a surprising vote that left the city administration scrambling to find a new solution to balance the budget.“It’s not the administration’s role to count heads,” Troller said. “The commission can work together and the commission needs to set policy and make a direction.”Malless agreed.“I think we need to be clearer on what we want,” he said. “We need to be clearer on our expectations of time. If we know what we want and have specific directions, we need to give (the city manager’s office) specific directions.“I think if we do that the staff can be more efficient and effective with their job.”The renewed focus on policy comes at a time when Lakelanders are contemplating whether or not their city’s future should lie in the hands of a council-manager form of government.The current commission’s perceived ineffectiveness is a point brought up by advocates of Lakeland electing a “strong mayor” to lead the administration.But blame the people in the seats, not the system of government, former City Manager Gene Strickland told a crowd in October at a debate hosted by the Lakeland branch of the NAACP.“The charter of the city of Lakeland hasn’t caused the infighting; it’s the people down there,” Strickland said.The focus on policy also comes as the city’s departments adjust to new leadership in Interim City Manager Tony Delgado, who may end up with the permanent position.Former City Manager Doug Thomas’s leadership was a point of contention on the City Commission, and fairly or not, Delgado’s promotion into the position in September has allowed the commission to move past the Lakeland Police Department scandal, Malless said.“I do think this is a commission that has shifted to some degree,” Malless said. “That’s a chapter that’s now fully closed.”“I think it’s going to be very interesting, I think the commission will be more focused, I hope.”Delgado has been making moves to help that focus by freeing the commission from time-consuming procedural issues, like certain minor business and zoning ordinances that require commission approval.It’s a fine balance, Delgado said.“We want to be prudent about it, we don’t want to overstep commission priorities,” he said. It’s a policy decision, Delgado said, and those changes may too emerge as deeply debated issues during policy discussion sessions.One view: The buck stops with the commission, Troller said.“Nothing is beneath us,” he said. “We are ultimately responsible to the voters … because at the end of the day we’re the ones who have to answer for it.”

— Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.

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